A Nation's Heart Beat

The first prosecution witness i the ongoing trial of opposition activist who was charged with broadcasting without license has told the court that he “did not hear the accused on any of the radios broadcasting anything”.

Appearing before the Bundung Magistrates’ Court yesterday, the witness, an agent of the National Intelligence Agency, said he does not know whether anyone needed a license to to pas information through Skype.

He also told the court that he does not have a Skype account neither does he browse the internet. However, he said his task was to obtain statement from the accused person while in detention.

NIA had no list of broadcasting stations in The Gambia?

“I did not hear the accused on any of the radios broadcasting anything,” he stated.

He also said he has no knowledge that whether the NIA had a list of all the broadcasting stations in The Gambia. He however promised to get the list from the Ministry of Information by the next sitting date.

Accused had no access to lawyer, family during detention

Asked whether he had given chance to the accused to call his lawyer to be present at the time of obtaining the cautionary statement, the witness said he did not do that.

The witness told the court that he did not know that the accused was arrested on 15 December 2013, adding that he only came to know that the time he was obtaining a cautionary statement from Mr. Jobarteh.